Architecture in Italy 1400-1500: Revised Edition (The Yale University Press Pelican Histor) [Hardcover]

Ludwig H. Heydenreich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 1996 | Series: The Yale University Press Pelican Histor

In 15th-century Florence, Brunelleschi's buildings and Alberti's treatise first established the principles of Italian Renaissance architecture in practice and theory. This survey ranges from Brunelleschi's dome for the Florence Cathedral to the works of Bramante and Leonardo in the Quattrocento.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; Revised edition (February 21, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300064667
• ISBN-13: 978-0300064667
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,936,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Only useful for the specialist., February 10, 2003

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Nom de Guerre "miraxterrick" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Architecture in Italy, 1400-1500 (The Yale University Press Pelican History of Art) (Paperback)

This book is considered to be "the great survey" of early Renaissance architecture, and is, in fact, the only one that has ever been written covering the subject (except for a 1998 book in Italian that is really more a collection of articles). I find this lack of surveys rather surprising as Renaissance architecture is one of the most well-loved subjects in art history, and I would think that specialists, students, and laymen would demand a simple World of Art kind of treatment of the topic. The Pelican series generally does not provide this type of clear, thesis-driven introductory text, and Heydenreich's book is no exception. It is a collection of facts--a catalog of "this building was built then and it shows influence from that and the architect was so-and-so"--with minimal interpretation and explanation (we generally don't even learn what details indicate that "this" building was influenced by "that" one). A great deal of familiarity with the material is required on the part of the reader, so the text entirely failed my mission of gaining a broad understanding of quattrocento architecture. If you are well-versed in the topic and are looking for a reference, this book may be helpful; if you're looking for elucidation, it almost surely won't be. The most Heydenreich seems to be able to say about the style of buildings or the reason they were compelling to their contemporaries is that they were "perfect" and "beautiful," terms I have heard altogether too frequently (and too frequently unexplained) from Renaissance art historians. I regret that I have no better book to recommend in Heydenreich's place.

On a somewhat different note, the binding of the paperback Pelican books is shoddy at best. By the time I had finished this book, which I did read cover to cover despite really disliking it (it's only 151 pages anyway), all of its pages were falling out!